Many homes today have a garage that is constructed as an integral part of a home's structure. This architecture creates an aesthetically pleasing design for the home as well as to provide an easy means of moving from the automobile into the home. For single story homes having a conventional garage that is adjoined to the living quarters of a home, the roof thereabove in conjunction with a ceiling creates an attic enclosure which is commonly shared thereby. Although used primarily for the storage of automobiles, the garage is also used for the storage of other various household items such as lawn care equipment, shop tools, and the like.
Nevertheless, to further increase the available storage capacity of household items, many homes nowadays have an attic access means which is accessible from the garage enclosure. This attic access means may be a conventional disappearing stairway which comprises a folding ladder for entry into the attic enclosure. The folding ladder is hingibly attached to one end of a rectangular shaped hole in the ceiling for reciprocal movement from a contracted position within the confines of the attic enclosure to an extended position wherein a user may enter the attic by climbing thereon. The rectangular shaped hole is formed from adjacent joists of the attic floor and cross braces that extend therebetween. The disappearing stairway typically includes a flat panel that lies generally flush with the ceiling when in the contracted position to inhibit airflow from the garage to the attic as well as to enhance the general appearance thereof. Another type of attic access means which is commonly used is a generally rectangular shaped hole in the ceiling having a flat panel which is laid over the opening thereof commonly known as a scuttle hole. The scuttle hole is similar to a disappearing stairway in that the rectangular shaped hole is formed from adjacent joists of the attic floor in conjunction with cross braces therebetween. However, the scuttle hole differs from the disappearing stairway in that no folding ladder for climbing into the attic is provided, only a flat panel of a predetermined size for covering the hole is removably disposed thereover when not in use. In addition, the lateral dimensions of the rectangular shaped hole are chosen to allow entry to the attic space by one person at a time.
Because the attic enclosure exists as a generally confined area between the roof structure and the ceiling, temperatures therein can become excessive during the summer months. Similarly, the conventional garage encompasses a confined air space due to current building practices which do not provide for adequate ventilation of the garage enclosure. Thus, the conventional garage is rarely designed to be protected from the thermal elements of nature because it is understood that home dwellers rarely spend significant amount of time therein. Therefore, the temperatures within a conventional garage can become very hot during the summer months. This problem is exacerbated by current building practices in which the ceiling or the walls of a garage of a home are not insulated, as is the rest of the home.
In many cases, it would be desirable to provide ventilation from a room such as a garage to the attic in order to maintain a fresh inflow of air to the room as well as to the attic enclosure. This would be particularly advantageous during the summer months when temperatures in poorly ventilated rooms or attics can become very hot. Nevertheless, there has heretofore been no device proposed that can be implemented on the ceiling of a room without significant modification to the ceiling structure. U.S. Pat. No. 4,261,255 to Anderson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,501,194 to Brown and, U.S. Pat. No. 4,784,049 to Steiner et al. disclose examples of fan devices which are designed to move air from a room into an attic. Nevertheless, all of these devices require a dedicated hole be cut into a ceiling as well as other structural modifications which are outside the scope or capabilities of the standard homeowner. Thus, these devices require professional installation, which is costly. U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,386 to Calandra proposes a ventilation device which passively moves air through the flat panel of a scuttle hole. However, since this device depends upon the airflow created by fans mounted on the roof of a home, sufficient airflow is not created in order to appreciably lower the temperature in a room such as a garage due to other vent structures such as soffit vents which also draft air into the attic enclosure. Moreover, current building practices have implemented ventilation mechanisms which overlay the ridge of a typical roof commonly known as “ridge vents” and examples of such devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,326,113 to Smith et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,280,399 to Cunning, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,971,848 to Ravinder et al. Because these devices move air through an attic enclosure in a passive manner, the airflow required to effectively lower the temperatures of a room such as a garage are not attainable when used in conjunction with the '386 device.
The need to provide active ventilation for a garage structure has been known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,524,181 to Wasson discloses a fan device which may be mounted to either the garage door or wall of a garage. However, neither fan mounting location is capable of augmenting the existing ventilation system of the attic enclosure. In addition, the structural configuration of the walls of a typical garage is not conducive to an easy installation procedure which requires the cutting of a hole therein. Moreover, the routing of power cables to the fan device that is mounted on a garage door is cumbersome.
Various attempts have been made to utilize the existing opening in a ceiling provided by a disappearing stairway to vent air from a room to the attic via a fan means. U.S. Pat. No. 2,496,773 to Brown discloses a disappearing stairway having a louvered panel which allows airflow to pass therethrough when in the contracted position. Nevertheless, this device also requires the use of a large, movable shroud to direct airflow from the horizontally oriented louver structure to a vertically oriented fan disposed in the attic. U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,508 to Seebo discloses a combination disappearing staircase/attic fan means arrangement wherein either device may be alternatively positioned over a hole in the ceiling. Nevertheless, both the disappearing stairway as well as the attic fan means are relatively large, heavy devices which would be cumbersome to move. In addition, the use of either device is mutually exclusive, that is both devices cannot be used at the same time.
There has been a long-felt need for a ventilation device for any room of a house or other similar type building which utilizes the existing hole of an attic access means disposed in a ceiling thereof to provide positive ventilation of air from the room to the attic thereabove by a fan means. The device should provide adequate ventilation to effectively lower the temperature thereof during the hot summer months, and should be easy to install and maintain by a relatively unskilled homeowner.